U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,765, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses an orifice plate for use in a conduit through which fluid flows.
As disclosed in the '765 patent, in general, the variation of a process variable across an orifice plate's surface introduces inefficiencies in a fluid flow. For example, prior art orifice plates generally experience fairly large pressure losses as a fluid flows from one side of the plate to the other. Unfortunately, to handle such large pressure losses, larger and more expensive fluid pumps are used. Also, pressure potential in prior art orifice plates is generally consumed by eddy turbulence that is random and chaotic. These eddy formations about the orifice plate reduce linearity and repeatability of any process variable measurements thereby causing a reduction in measurement accuracy. Reduced measurement accuracy leads to processes that are highly variable which, in turn, increases process costs due to greater equipment operational margins that must be maintained. If pressure can be equalized or balanced across the surface area of an orifice plate, the random and chaotic eddy formations may be greatly reduced. Thus, by balancing the flow with respect to the measured process variable, the accuracy of process variable measurement may be improved while the cost of taking such measurements may be reduced.
An orifice plate according to the '765 patent addresses these issues. More particularly, an orifice plate according to the '765 patent may balance one or more process variable associated with a fluid flow passing through the orifice plate across the surface of the orifice plate. Thus, an orifice plate according to the '765 patent may improve repeatability, linearity, and reduction of pressure loss.
However, the '765 patent does not teach how to construct an orifice plate configured to limit pipe and plate noise, erosion, cavitation, shear stress, etc. while maximizing pressure loss, and limiting flow to required values. Further, the '765 patent does not teach how to manufacture an orifice plate configured to optimize process variable measurements, minimize system pressure drop, recover pressure, recover energy, and reduce noise and other inefficiencies within a system using an orifice plate optimized through the use of a Reynolds matching (RM) equation.